Accordion-folded paper strips heretofore have been used as decorative packaging, dunnage, void-fill and other cushioning products. Accordion-folded paper strips have also recently found uses in other fields, such as the agricultural and veterinary fields.
Machines and methods for making such folded strips are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,088,972; 5,134,013; 5,173,352; 5,403,259; 5,573,491 and 5,656,008; and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/153,360. In these machines and methods, a continuous sheet of material is separated into a plurality of strips and folded into a zig-zag or accordion shape. The folding may be accomplished by advancing the plurality of strips against a restrained body of previously folded strips in such a manner that the natural resilience of the material produces adjacent opposite folds thereby causing the strips to assume a zig-zag shape. The separation of the sheet of material into strips is accomplished by transverse separation of the sheet into lengths which define the lengths of the strips and longitudinal separation of the sheet which defines the width of the strip. The width of the folded strip will be approximately the same as the width of the unfolded strip. The length of the folded strip will be somewhat shorter than the length of the unfolded strip.
The separation of the continuous sheet of material into a plurality of strips has been accomplished by several methods of longitudinal and then transverse separation. For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,088,972 and 5,134,013, a machine and method is disclosed in which a continuous sheet or web of material is first longitudinally cut into longitudinal sections. These longitudinal sections are folded and then the folded sections are transversely separated into strips to form a plurality of folded strips. Thus, the continuous sheet of material is longitudinally separated and then subsequently transversely separated into folded strips.
Alternatively, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,173,352 and 5,403,259, a machine and method is disclosed in which the leading end of the continuous sheet of paper is completely transversely separated from the rest of the sheet of paper to define a leading sheet portion. This leading sheet portion is then fed to a longitudinal slitting assembly for longitudinal separation of the sheet into strips which are then folded into folded strips. Thus, the continuous sheet of material is transversely separated and subsequently longitudinally separated into strips which are then folded into folded strips having the same or a specified unfolded length.
Folded strips also have heretofore been produced using a combination of machines. A first machine, known as a crepe converter machine, impels a continuous sheet of paper through transverse restricting fingers and wrinkles the paper, thereby producing a creped/crimped sheet. In a second machine, the creped/crimped sheet is longitudinally slit and transversely cut to form folded strips. In still another arrangement, a corrugator machine is used in place of the crepe converter machine. In the corrugator machine, the continuous sheet of paper is passed between cooperating corrugating rollers that produce corrugating in the paper. The corrugated paper may then be wound into a roll and later supplied to slitting and cutting equipment which longitudinally slits and transversely cuts the corrugated paper sheet into strips.
The aforesaid machines or machine combinations are of considerable size, weight and cost. Thus, heretofore these machines have been located at a few manufacturing facilities and the folded strips have been shipped in boxes or bags to customers who may be located a considerable distance from the manufacturing facility. This results in high transportation costs considering that the folded strips occupy a substantial volume requiring a lot of room in the truck or other transport vehicle. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a machine and associated method for producing the folded strips that is significantly smaller, lighter and less expensive then presently known machines. Thus, for a given investment more machines could be located at respective strategically located manufacturing and/or end user facilities, thereby substantially reducing shipping costs of the converted product.